


The Gift of Nayru

by thephilosophersapprentice



Category: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Frustration, King Rhoam Bosphoramus Hyrule is a bad father, Missing Scene, Powerlessness, Pre-Calamity (Legend of Zelda), does this count as hurt no comfort, thanks a lot rhoam, this is why link doesn't speak up any more
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-17
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-14 23:00:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28803204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thephilosophersapprentice/pseuds/thephilosophersapprentice
Summary: Ironically, it was at the hands of his own king that Link, Champion of Hyrule, would first taste defeat.Link tries to speak his mind regarding Rhoam's treatment of Zelda. Tragically, Rhoam is too entrenched in his belief that he's in the right to listen.Now with an unplanned second chapter!
Relationships: Link & Zelda
Comments: 16
Kudos: 49





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Heads-up: This deals with a lot of frustration, defeat, and negative feelings. There's also a mention of Zelda inadvertently hurting herself in pursuit of prayer. If you're in a bad headspace, continuing to read might not be a good thing.

The fear boiled up again, hot and sour like acid, and Link hated himself a little. _Coward. Too little, too late._ He was supposed to be Farore’s champion, courage incarnate, and yet he’d never spoken up, and even now he’d determined to do so, he was frozen outside King Rhoam’s study.

Link grit his teeth together, schooled his expression into blankness and knocked.

“Enter,” the king called.

Link twisted the handle, the metal cold under his skin, and stepped through the gap. He shut the door behind him and bowed formally.

“Champion Link!” Rhoam couldn’t keep the surprise from his voice. Even now, he was jovial, almost fatherly.

Unfortunately for Rhoam, Link already had a father. He would’ve traded with Zelda in a heartbeat. She didn’t deserve any of this.

Link kept his voice low and even. “I can’t stay quiet about this any longer, your Majesty. You’ve been unfair to Princess Zelda. I think you owe her an apology.”

Rhoam simply stared at him, taken aback.

Link continued, his tone unchanged over the pounding of his heart. “I’ve been with her every step of the way for the past two years. I’ve seen how hard she works, how much she prays, and if her prayers have failed so far it must be because the goddesses are _deaf_. She risks injury, Your Majesty. It is my understanding that, before my service, at the Spring of Power she contracted hypothermia. I understand that your harshness is born out of fear for Hyrule, but it has driven the Princess to do harm to herself.” He was walking a line between harshness and ineffectiveness, and the fear was almost choking him. “She studies the Guardians and Divine Beasts because she believes it’s the only way she can help.”

The king was watching him, the kindly twinkle gone from his eyes.

“None of us can go on like this, your majesty.” Link straightened into parade attention, waiting his fate.

“If she isn’t motivated, there will be no result. I understand your reservations, Champion, but I fear that there is nothing else I can do.”

Link screamed internally, though his face remained impassive. “What about Zelda’s well-being? She is my charge. I can’t fail in my duty.”

“A duty which you have discharged admirably so far. I appreciate your discretion in this matter.”

Link bit his tongue. Who was he, anyway, that Rhoam would listen to him? He was just the hand to wield the sword. He was not even born to a noble family and his voice held no weight, even if the legends said he spoke for Farore.

The legends were wrong.

If Link had spoken for Farore, Zelda would have received her powers long before now.

He sorted out his thoughts before speaking again. “Please speak to her, your majesty.”

“I will. Thank you for believing in my daughter. She could not have a more devoted protector.”

The words felt like ash under Link’s tongue. He could not throw doubt publicly on the king’s leadership and risk destabilizing Hyrule. To do so would be to court ruin. For a moment, he was privy to a future he was powerless to avert. For the first time since entering the princess’s service, he hoped to Hylia that if that was what Nayru’s gift felt like, Zelda would never know it.

Link bowed and left the king’s study.

 _What are you going to do now?_ an internal voice that sounded a lot like Revali taunted. _Cry on Urbosa’s shoulder? Go home to your mother and father and enjoy what Zelda can’t have?_

His cheeks burned with anger and shame. It was the first time he had felt defeat like this and he knew it would linger with him, taunting, accusing, a monster on the scale of the Calamity itself. Worse, it would be a betrayal of trust to tell even his father about the interview. As part of the royal household, Link’s lips were sealed by more than choice. He would have to crush down the guilt, the shame, the defeat, bury them deep and leave them for dead. Tomorrow, he would return to his duties as though nothing had happened, because nothing had _changed_. Tomorrow, he wouldn’t speak. He already knew that if he tried, no one would listen.

Tonight, he made his way to the training grounds. The rhythmic _thwack_ of a heavy wooden sword driving against the dummies echoed through the courtyard until just before dawn.


	2. Regrets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A century later, Link returns to the Sanctum.

One hundred years later, Link stood in the sanctum, staring up at the warped cocoon that housed a demon king. There was silence.

If he closed his eyes, he could snatch at the trailing streamers of a memory—of proud music upon harps and trumpets and drums, bright banners, the breeze of spring blowing through the opened windows below brilliant stained glass. It was spring again, but the sanctum was silent but for the wheezing of malice; the once-bright glass was cracked and fallen; the pristine stones were broken and soiled. The banners floated, mere dirty rags. Even his memory was but a mournful whisper of the once-proud throne room.

“Do you see now how wrong you were, Rhoam?” he asked aloud. “Did you ever speak to her like I asked? Did you regret?”

There was no answer. It was always the way.

In the end, it was his doom to face the monsters alone.

The goddesses never bent down to a battle, not since Hylia relinquished her immortal form. That was why they made him.

“You won’t speak to her. You won’t show yourself to her even now.” Link exhaled. “You were cruel, and foolish. And now you’re a coward.”

It was almost funny, how he couldn’t remember the expression of Rhoam’s face. Only how he had felt.

“You failed your kingdom. Worse, you failed your daughter.”

Link’s mercy had already been offered, as a discarded warning. It was gone beyond his reach.

“In life, you were my king. But even then my deeper duty was to Zelda. Rhoam, I cast you off. I leave you to your regrets and the doom of your own making.” Link drew the Master Sword. “I’m going to end the Calamity. But know that I am not doing it for you.”

**Author's Note:**

> I always wanted Link to speak up to Rhoam. Link was charged with defending Zelda from threats and Rhoam is absolutely included in that.
> 
> Of course, Link doesn't remember everything, so maybe he _did_ speak up, to no result. Poor kids. Both Link and Zelda were set up to fail by Rhoam's actions.
> 
> Zelda still doesn't know Link tried to stand up for her.


End file.
